One Must Consider Them Happy

2017

In "One Must Consider Them Happy," viewers are confronted with the Sisyphean and absurd nature of a variety of aspects of contemporary American culture through board games. While board games provide a fun filled afternoon for the whole family many were created as educational tools, explaining complex ideas or espousing cultural norms. The series revisits classic board games from my childhood and redesigns them to reflect the new rules and structures at play in American society. Viewers eventually realize that the games in this series are unwinnable or that the winners are predetermined.

The Game of Life (Social Media Edition,) based on the original Game of Life asks players to move around the board collecting social media followers. Players are rewarded for actions that would get them followers in real life, like creating a popular meme and loose followers for not being internet savvy. Viewers will notice that when one gets to the end of the board where one would retire in the original version, in this one, you must simply start over.

Sorry! Not Sorry.: The Game of Promotion in Higher Education is an examination of the current state of teaching and obtaining employment in the higher education system through the lens of the classic board game, Sorry! Players are invited to draw cards and move around the board accordingly for the reasons listed on each card. Viewers will notice that only a small percentage of “tenure-track” positions are available and as a result, only a maximum of 3 players are actually ever able to win or even finish the game.

In Gig Economy Chutes and Ladders, players move around through the board hoping to make it to the top quickly by landing at the bottom of ladders rather than at the top of chutes. The game walks players through the trials and tribulations of working a job in the gig economy. In the end, players are denied the ability to win based on unsubstantiated and poor customer satisfaction ratings.

Settlers of D.C. is a remake of the game, Settlers of Catan. In this version, players roll the dice to collect resources from the city and use those resources to build developments. Each player is assigned a different gentrifying force currently effecting Washington D.C.’s neighborhoods. These gentrifying forces include chain stores, Starbucks, millennials, Whole Foods, construction and Chipotle.

Electoral Risk is an examination of our current electoral college process through the lens of the classic board game, Risk. Through play, viewers will learn to develop common strategies employed by candidates to dominate the most strategic states to get to 270 electors. Electoral Risk equates current political campaign strategy with a war game.